Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon stated on Monday that any continued aggression from terror groups like Hamas, such as the digging of tunnels and firing of mortar shells into Israeli territory, will be responded to with force.
“Against this terror stands the IDF and various security agencies who are responding decisively to the shooting from the Strip – shooting that, if it continues, will lead to a more severe response for Hamas and other terrorist organizations in the Strip, until they understand it’s not wise to test us,” Ya’alon said.
Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, said on Saturday that the IDF would continue its anti-tunnel operations along the Gaza border. “The army intends to maintain its activities against Hamas as it continues to breach Israeli sovereignty and build tunnels,” he said.
The IDF has discovered two terror tunnels reaching into Israeli territory in the past month. In an apparent effort to deter the IDF from detecting tunnels, Hamas last week shelled Israeli positions for four days, prompting return fire from Israel. Just before Passover, Israeli security forces seized four tons of ammonium chloride, a chemical that can be used as a rocket propellant for long-range rockets, in a truck crossing into the Gaza Strip.
Gen. Yossi Kuperwasser, formerly the head of the research division of Israeli military intelligence and later the director-general of the Ministry of Strategic Affairs, told reporters last week that the discovery of the tunnels was a sign that Hamas was preparing for another war against Israel. He said the the tunnel digging means that “they definitely invest a lot in making the necessary preparations so that in the next round, when they decide to start it, they will be able to inflict the heaviest damage on Israel, including through those tunnels.”
Israel went to war with Hamas in the summer of 2014 in order to prevent Hamas from firing rockets at Israeli civilians and eliminate the threat to Israeli civilians from the terror tunnels. Israel completely withdrew from Gaza in 2005 and Hamas took over the territory in 2007 after a civil war with Fatah. According to the IDF, Palestinian terror groups have launched over 11,000 rockets at Israel since it withdrew from Gaza in 2005, with over five million Israeli civilians living under threat of rocket fire.
[Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90 ]